Alloro Wine Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Bandon

UPDATE: We returned to Bandon in the summer of 2024 and saw on their website that the shrimp scampi was back. Excited, we made reservations and arrived to find that it wasn’t on the menu (someone forgot to tell the person that’s supposed to update the website.). So, I remembered the words of the owner in the response to my earlier review “if you would like scampi, simply request that from your server and we’re usually able to happily oblige” and asked if I could get the scampi. I was told by the server, in no uncertain terms, that they absolutely would not make the scampi for us. Based on the menu, they had EVERY ingredient needed, but despite their gaslighting on this review site, they are not accommodating. “…please, simply inquire about a favorite dish and we will do our best to take care of you!” was clearly lip service. Sadly, our traditional annual trip to Alloro ends this year.

PREVIOUS REVIEW: Every year, I visit Bandon and, part of my tradition, is to have dinner at Alloro. Let me start with the non-foods. Apparently, this restaurant is still stuck in 2020, because they are still requiring masks. Seriously! For a 5-foot walk from the door to your table. Everybody else in town has realized that the era of mask mandates is over, but not here. Pathetic. -1 star

People on this review site complain about the fees. The three main ones are split plate, extra rolls and corkage. Now, if you have the audacity to bring your own wine to a "wine bar," you should expect to pay a corkage fee - even one as high as $35. Also, the housemade rolls (delicious, by the way) are complimentary up to TWO per person. That is more than reasonable. To ask a mere 50 cents for the third one is not out of line at all. The $8 spilt plate fee, however, is a little ridiculous. The plating is not Michelin star level that would be hard to split onto two plates. Anyone who's ever worked in a restaurant knows how easy this is. As far as staffing, they couldn't be nicer. Our server was very friendly and responsive - making sure water is refilled and always available if needed. In the past, the chef/owner has come to the table to greet diners. This year, we never saw her. (Maybe she's so deathly afraid of Covid, she chooses to stay quarantined in the kitchen??)

Anyway, onto the food. In 2018, I had the duck with a cranberry chipotle sauce. Absolutely delicious. No longer on the menu. In 2019, I had shrimp scampi. Beautiful shrimp in delicious scampi sauce with the chef's housemade pasta. No longer on the menu. In 2020, I had the Fettuccine Alfredo with a beautiful Crab Cake on top. Also delicious - the Alfredo sauce, the housemade pasta and the crab cake. No longer on the menu. Last year, unfortunately, I chose the Bolognese. It was served over some sort of pasta that looked like frilly lasagna noodles, cut in half. That wasn't the worst part. The Bolognese sauce was one of the worst I've had in my life. I've had it in Bologna, so I know what it's supposed to taste like. They try to make it the traditional way, with low tomato content, but they miss the mark. The menu talks about mascarpone and ricotta, but there was none of either on my plate. Disappointing. That, sadly IS still on the menu. Since the food is usually good, this might have been a fluke.

This year (2022), I wanted the seared scallops dish. Unfortunately, they were out. So, I settled on the grilled shrimp over mushroom risotto with broccolini. The risotto, although a very small portion, was absolutely delicious - well flavored and perfectly cooked. The shrimp were nice and large and very well cooked. It restored my faith in the cooking after last year's stumble.

In the past, the dessert was a delicious ending to the menu - tiramisu one year, lemon tart another. This year, however, the dessert menu was extremely disappointing, to say the least, so we decided to go home and...

I can’t believe this restaurant has received so many good reviews. Our experience was the worst we’ve ever experienced ever. We ordered a glass of wine and one of their special mocktails (a raspberry, mint mojito), a bowl of clam chowder and two entrees. After waiting for 40 minutes I asked the server when we would receive our drinks and were told they might be out of one of the ingredients. I said she should have told me and I could have had something else, and she should at least bring the glass of wine. About 5 minutes later the drinks arrived. The mocktail had no mint in it and did not taste anything like what it was described as. The server then said she apologized but there had been a problem with their printer and the soup should be out shortly. We waited a few more minutes and decided that we were tired of waiting and told the server we would be leaving, just as a tiny cup of soup arrived. She said the drinks would be comped so we said fine and that we were leaving. We walked about a block away and then heard someone yelling and running after us so we stopped and turned back to see what she wanted. It was the chef/owner who proceeded to start taking pictures of us and saying she was going to call the police. We asked why; she wanted us to pay for what the server said was being comped. We explained our side of the situation and she said we were lying and the server didn’t have the right to comp things. She said she had cameras and we said she should look at them to prove our side but she just kept threatening us until we asked what she expected of us. We ended up paying for the drinks, which we only had about half of and the soup, which we didn’t eat, but had them make “to go” just out of principle. The treatment we received was horrific and the owners attitude was...

We were searching for a good quality place to dine in Bandon. But we were quickly disappointed.

The prices for a plate of pasta are OUTRAGEOUS ($32???? are you kidding me???) we stayed since most businesses were closed and the town is really small.

The main lady taking our orders wasn't the friendliest, not half a smile, not very welcoming, asked up for our orders after literally a few seconds of sitting down and taking off our jackets (didn't even get a chance to read the menu). We all got pasta and sad to say it was terrible they were all sitting in a pool of oil on the bottom - drenched to say the least, it was insane the amount of oil they were soaking in... Oil should not be the main sauce of a pasta. It was dripping everywhere.

After we tried eating it and got dessert they immediately brought us the bill after the last spoon of dessert and they quickly rushed us out to get up and go... unreal to see a business treat clients like that. They literally said "i need you to go, need the table in 5 minutes".

The place was pretty calm and the town was pretty quiet so being rushed and kicked out like that afor spending 10 minutes talking after dinner despite having spent a large sum of money for just pasta and supporting their business, was rude and inconsiderate.

All and all i just cannot recommend it unfortunately. BUT on the other hand we had the most awesome breakfast ever at SHOESTRING CAFE right down the street. Most welcoming, down to earth, friendly warm and considerate atmosphere. The owner does everything alone, yet on the contrary of Alloro he is so nice and welcoming.. They could learn a thing or two from him. Definitely check out Shoestring cafe such a great...